Ping Pong Company Takes Shot at Helping Employees Disconnect Digitally
Neil Schneider, design director at Chicago-based IA Interior Architects, told a crowded theater inside the Windy City’s Merchandise Mart that a key element in office design is creating an environment where employees want to come work rather than working from home.
It’s about establishing a community that draws people together, Schneider said. He mentioned food being a big driver but not ping pong.
Robert Blackwell might argue you can accomplish the same thing with a high-end table and paddles. Blackwell started Killerspin in 2001 to sell luxury table tennis to companies as way of giving employees an opportunity to disconnect from technology and interact with one another.
“Unplug and play as a service, that’s our business,” he said at his company’s booth at NeoCon, one of the largest trade shows for commercial designers see the latest in furniture, décor and technology.
Ping pong has long been a staple at technology startups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. But their use has spread into office environments beyond the tech world.
These tables aren’t the $130 ones you can buy at Walmart. A Killerspin top-of-the line table fetches $4,000. And they are sleek. Blackwell wouldn’t go into detail about sales other than to say “thousands a year are sold.”
At the show, Killerspin employed two professional ping-players to put on demonstrations, smashing yellow ping pong balls that end up in nearby booths, leading unamused exhibitors to politely retrieve them. Blackwell shrugged that off.
Companies have choice of having a sterile environment like a hospital or being like a neighborhood with activity, he said.
“You get to interact with people” in a neighborhood, Blackwell said.
Killerspin, for example, helps organize tournaments for Chicago financial services company Mesirow Financial. Employees bring their own paddles.
Three years ago, Killerspin worked with the Italian Table Tennis Foundation to create the World UnPlugNPlay Day, an effort to encourage people to unplug from their digital devices and play ping pong. They launched it in Vatican City with Pope Francis, even making a table for him. The Pope regularly encourages people to disconnect from technology and spend quality time with family and friends.
